Chapter 7. GAIN methodology to enhance producer organizations’ capacity for market integration 213
- Introduction
Constraints faced by smallholders – be they women or men – in accessing markets and improving
their revenues are well known and easy to enumerate. Finding workable solutions to these constraints
remains a challenge. Small farmers face a number of constraints in terms of access to markets such
as the lack of means of production (arable land, water, equipment, financial resources), poor access
to education, training and modern technology and weak bargaining power. Women face additional
challenges, including cultural and legal discrimination giving them or not access to production inputs,
financial services, education and technology.
The situation is very similar in many developing countries, particularly in Africa. A major obstacle to
achieving agricultural development and inclusive value chains is the lack of effective and self-reliant
producer organizations. In West and Central Africa, farm organizations form only a small portion of
the farm population, and when they exist, they are often structurally weak, lack good governance
and the endogenous capacity to be self-reliant and sustainably deliver the economic services required
by their members. In most cases, these organizations remain too dependent on external support that
often lacks safeguards to ensure long term sustainability.
Following the food crisis of 2007-08, during the World Summit on Food Security organized by FAO in
November 2009, Member States reaffirmed the need to better integrate small farmers – be they women
or men – in agricultural markets. This recommendation came out of the bitter fact that, in most cases,
despite the soaring food prices starting in 2007, small farmers in poor countries have not been able to
respond by increasing their production. The expected production response to price increases did not
occur. This showed that agricultural markets do not work - at least not for small farmers.
To correct this huge market failure, policies need a strategic correction and redirection toward staple
food value chains and food strategy based on diversification as the surest way towards food security.
Such process in fact started in 2000 when the Millennium Development Goals were established
followed by the regional agricultural policies such as the African Agricultural Development Program
(CAADP); however the crisis of 2007-2008 has given more urgency to this shift.
Developing markets that include small farmers requires a concerted effort involving government,
the private sector and agribusiness, as well as producer organizations (POs), Non Governmental
Organizations (NGOs), etc. Producer organizations play a key role in ideally helping their members
to be less isolated and to increase their social capital and self-confidence (especially for women).
In addition, the PO can facilitate producers’ access to training, loans and marketing of products
on the market, while reducing their transaction costs and increasing their bargaining power. Thus,
by organizing themselves, small producers are better able to overcome the constraints they face
individually and take advantage of market opportunities. In order to be effective, these policies
and programs of action must be based on functional small producer organizations that have clear
economic objectives and are self-empowered with sustainable capacities. These will give them the
possibility to interact and negotiate with economic, financial and institutional partners.
In West Africa, as elsewhere, during the last 25 years, a wide range of producer organizations, mainly
associative institutions and agricultural cooperatives, have emerged and come to fill a void created
by the gradual decline of public investment, management and support to the agricultural sector. The
performance evaluation of these organizations shows that they are relatively limited. This is due to a
number of reasons: the conditions and motivations for which these organizations were set up (often